What Is HDVD?

We define high-definition video and sound as 1080i video or better together with at least 5.0 high-fidelity sound. The term HDVD stands for three different ways to distribute high-definition video and sound:

  1. High-Definition Video Disc
  2. High-Definition Video Download
  3. High-Definition Video Device

High-Definition Video Disc includes:

  1. Blu-ray. This is the optical disc promoted by Sony. It's the only such disc now being sold in the United States and Europe with backing from a major manufacturer.
  2. HD DVD. This is the optical disc formerly promoted by Toshiba. Toshiba pulled out on February 19, 2008. However, there still is a market for HD DVD titles that were made while the "format war" raged on.
  3. Toshiba super-duper DVD. Why did Toshiba dump HD DVD? In the fall of 2008, Toshiba came out with the XDE500 (extended detail) device that "super-upconverts" DVDs to 1080p. Reports indicate this device competes effectively in upscaling with Blu-ray. But this is no threat to Blu-ray. For just a little more money, you can buy an upscaling Blu-ray player and have it all. Toshiba may have thought that better recording methods, software, and hardware might allow red laser DVDs to produce a 1080p picture competitive with that produced by a blue laser device.Well, as we enter 2010, nothing seems to be happening in the Toshiba red laser camp. Rumour says Toshiba will soon start making Blu-ray players.
  4. CBHD. Have you heard of this one? This is "China Blue High-definition DVD," the Chinese variation of HD DVD. While Toshiba was the proud papa to HD DVD, nobody paid much attention to the bastard son in China. But CBHD may be up and running in 2010. Would you rather compete with Toshiba or with the Chinese?

High-Definition Video Download. If a fine arts title is available in high-definition, then one day you should be able to get it by downloading it into your media center or a PC either as a streaming program or to local storage. We say "one day" because it's quite a daunting project to get an Internet bitstream properly integrated with a typical home theatre based on an AV receiver, a big screen, and a 5.1 set of speakers. Still, the New York Met, for example, has already started this direction with their Met Player streaming download service. It appears you can get a high-definition video picture together with stereo (16 bit 44.1 kHz) sound. This is OK with some folks, but it doesn't meet our requirement that HDVD have at least 5.0 sound. Many other players are entering this market with a blizzard of different distribution schemes. Hashing all this out will make the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD format war look like a children's game of Tic-Tac-Toe. If you have expert knowledge about all this, we would sure love to talk to you.

High-Definition Video Device. Now we start looking further over the horizon and consider any transportable media (other than magnetic or optical discs) that could be used to make a video. The best example of this would be the read-only flash memory device. Toshiba is one of the leaders in this fast-developing field of technology. If you don't know about this, let me describe it this way: You get in the mail from your seller or rental company a smooth solid-state (no moving parts) object about the size of half a stick of chewing gum. You stick the end of this into a small hole on your audio-visual amp or PC. Then you watch Aida on your big high-definition television screen with 7.1 lossless audio. At the moment, this is, of course, just a day-dream.

So far, this discussion has been focused on how the video gets to the consumer. Another aspects of this will be the standard in the future for "high-definition." Today we think in terms of 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. This will one day be obsolete. The manufacturers are working now on video factors that will have, say, 4096 horizontal lines in the picture. And they say that once you see "4K," you will never be happy with 1080p again. And, Oh! Now they are saying that 3-D will be the next big thing!

At this time, nobody is suggesting that broadcast television will in the foreseeable future go to a standard higher than 1080p. What is suggested, however, is that the standards used in high-definition home theatres one day may be higher than 1080p (and completely divorced from the world of television broadcasting).

Last revised January 9, 2010.